The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1887-06-11
LIFE IN GIBRALTAR.


ssesfrictions Under Which the Civil Popu.
isfion Of the Fortress ID Placed.
Gibraltar, besides its garrison OF
1000. has $1,000 inhabitants. For a
fortress OF such small extent this popu-
lation is embarrassing. The civilians
are everywhere sacrificed to the military.
In the village and on the rock the best
locations are occupied by barracks.
Every thing that serves the needs of de.
Tense. the health and comfort of the
troops. is admirably looked after. From
top to bottom the rock is furrowed with
excellent roads, and in the city the
streets are marvelously clean and well
kept The sewage system is perfect,
and gas and water abound everywhere.
But the civil population is shut up in
very restricted space, most of the houses
are novels, whose existence is subject
to the caprice of the military, for, above
all, nothing must interfere with the fir
ing of the batteries. Not new build
ing has been constructed for twenty
years, for all the available land was
built on long ago. These fifteen
thousand inhabitants, born on the
rock and called by the English
crock scorpions are, according
to law. subjects of the British
Government, as born on English soil.
They have the right to live where they
were born. No one can expel them,
bnt every thing is done to fetter the de-
velopment of the civil population. and
above all. to prevent the formation of a
foreign colony. A foreigner can enter
Gibraltar only with permit valid for
twenty-four hours. At the holders re-
quest it may be extended three days,
and he can not remain longer than that
time without a reliable guarantor known
to the military authorities. With such
guarantor his permit may be renewed
every three months, the guarantor being
li1ble to fine Of 500 francs and three
months Imprisonment if the person for
whom he has vouched violates any of
the rules imposed on foreigners. How
ever, foreigners are numerous, for
nearly all the servants employed at
Gibraltar are from Spain.
A male inhabitant of the rock may
marry foreign woman, who thus ac-
quires the right to live there, but a
British woman who marries a foreigner
is expelled with her husband the day Of
her marriage. When this law was first
put in force there were number OF
foreigners at Gibraltar who had been
allowed. to live there without permit for
years. All of them had to submit tc
the rule requiring permit every three
months.
The interior spectacle of the city OF
Gibraltar is lacking in neither gayety
nor animation. In the evening the
whole population is in the streets. The
Moors with their white Arabian cloaks,
their red vests, their pulled pantaloons,
their bare feet in Turkish slippers. jostle
the redcoats; the turbans mingle with
the whitecork hats of the English. In
the midst Of this crowd circulate En-
glish cavaliers. Amazons, Andalusian
muleteers with large sombreros, and
pretty blond misses with saucy straw
hats. The scene is varied, picturesque
and full of color. But when one lives
ut Gibraltar the truest pleasure is in
getting out of it. In the midst of the
rsmparts that surround you, batteries,
easements. powder factories, sentinels;
with the continued discharge of the
cannon signaling the opening and clos
ing of the only gateway by which one
communicates with the rest of the world,
the impression Of Imprisonment be-
comes so strong, the need of air space
and liberty so violent, that one passes
this single exit merely for the sake Of
passing it and assuring himself that he
is still free. A single road then pre-
sents itselfl-a road marvelously kept
up by the English and constantly filled
with carriages and pedestrians, which,
under blazing sky, goes along the
bay of Gibraltar at the left and the neu-
trail territory at the right, and leads
you in less than quarter of an hour
to the first custom house port, the first
Spanish village, Linea. There the
spectacle changes. In place of the
English sentinels, so fresh, SO rudy
and SO well fed, here are the custom
house officers with their hollow jaws
and starving air and so,nber and seedy
uniforms. For them every conner is a
smuggler; but don't be afraid, they will
not treat you badly. From time imme-
mortal the smuggler has been the friend
of the Spanish tax-gatherer. 1t is he
that enables him to live better than the
Government. which doesn't always give
him his pay!-Interior.
Women a. Garnet BUYERS.